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Apparently from what i have heard if your an enthouseiast like me some of the cables along houses are still live! ouch! so if you find out and they are thats a good sign that means the systems still working (only in certain cases) most of the lines have unfortunetly been cut off when they went outta business years back there used to be a building near me and it housed the area i lived in for the transmissions to be sent along the cables.

1) if they are live find some of the old equipment and get some channels because there may be a pirate broadcast?

i have also heard you could do some pirate channel yourself through the lines all u need is a small voltage if its not in the lines and some broadcasting connections
PERSONALLY I ADVICE YOU DONT DO IT AND I WOULDENT BECACUSE A FIRM CALLED CABLESTAR STILL RUNS EM OR A NAME LIKE THAT OR SOMEETHING
AND YOU COULD BE FINED FOR THE ILLIGAL BROADCASTING.

Theres still the old green boxes scattered around Shelton in Stoke on trent, most of them with flakey paint and open doors with some rather archaic connections inside!!

Surprised someone hasnt brought all of these, surely with digital it could offer a whole new range of possibilities with suitible modifications. Apparently there is a headquarters somewhere in shelton that is all boarded up, wonder whats inside!!

If you look on the ground or the pavement you can see manhole covers or sometimes large covers on the ground, these which if youm look say "REDIFFUSION" and used to amplify the signal to subscribers homes sometimes they had to dro[p the cyrrent it was too high.
rediffusion was not properly centralised, what with loads of modulators and demodulaters, amplifiers, repepeater stations and feeders.

If you ever get the chance to look in a old boarded up rediffusion building, have a look at the old dishes and really ancient equipment in there, You actually will notice that not all of the equipment has been removed!!! but most has

Really the equipment nowdays is far better due to digital technology

CORRECTION WHEN I SAID SMALL VOLTAGE I MEAN LARGE VOLTAGEVTO BROADCAST. Depending on area coverage or course.

I remember in the mid 1980's that there was a Rediffusion receiver station near Castle Street Hospital in Worcester. It probably explians why we don't have cable in Worcester, as when they went under, nobody could be bothered to take the licence on.

It was probably a case of introducing a product without properly researching a market. Perhaps if it had been introduced a few years later based on the technology currently in use, things would have been different.

Think that I am right in saying that Rediffusion also supplied instore music to many stores. They used to have offices on an industrial estate in Orpington, Kent. One of neighbour worked there until they closed a couple of years back

My parents remember watching the fixed cable service in the Bretton area of Peterborough in the mid seventies.

Can any one tell me more on it?

Also, the Peterborough Development Corporation said it didnt want aerials, and they had to be within the lofts. However when the City Council took over the houses, they allowed people to have what they wanted.

I remember my grandparents had cable TV in their home in Sheffield in the early eighties. It had the odd shaped plug on the window-sill, but the chanel changer was on the front of the set, and had space for 4 TV channels, and 3 radio.

I remember the picture going off a lot if anyone was having repair work done on the same street, and have fond memories of my Grandad changing the channels over with the rubber-end of his walking stick! If only he'd have lived to see a remote, he'd have been in seventh heaven...

Sorry if i go off topic a bit and it gets a bit techy but i want to be a commercial sound engineer.

As a quote for griggs: The insore music situation.....
i will give you a rundown as i know a lot about instorre loudspeaker systems and televison.

Rediffusion used to come in and you would have a standard 100 volt line amplifier supplied by rediffusion or another firm like (toa) etc.......

the wires fed into this (somehow.......)

Then they were fed to some 100v / 70volt loudspeakers Which have the little rediffusion sign on the front of the grilles, the speakers used to transform the current down to produce the sound, (each speaker carries a transformer to transform the current down to give equal power to the speakers or sellectable wattages this is a commercial system i have 2 of these amps.

My ones an eagle pa 5000 ( this is well known as a commen public address loudspeaker system. (the amp has a high power transformer) (all the wires run in parrelell).

Now when griggs said about his neighbour working at rediffusion. (that building is still there and it still does the same purpose) but is under the name of AEI MUSIC as from 2003 they were then called DMX MUSIC so now they are called dmx. but havent seen for a while if the name has changed but i last saw it as aei but now i heard it dmx! ( this is in croydon, ophinton)

there is a diy shop near me called HOMEBASE and they still ahve the six year old or more rediffusion music loudspeakers

And that was where rediffusion transmitter and offices were (no wonder they had the name)

And there is a also a coffee shop with ceiling loudspeakers
which have the rediffusion logo on them!!! ( so look and they are still around)

I was brought up in Hull during the 60's, and remember the TV sound being interrupted to put out local Flood Warnings if the River Hull was likely to overflow its banks. It usually was put out in the middle of Coronation Street or another popular program so as to get the maximum coverage in the area. The warnings always used to begin with a deep voice saying "This is a Reddifusion Announcment..." and then continuing with the details of the warning giving the time of the high tide.

I will tell you something though, my friend up the road he moved in his house 15 years ago, anyway he saw all this cable on the roof dangleing down and thick
armourd cable near the bushes, so he cut the wire while rediffusion was still going on!

and my roads 1 mile long!

later on he realised it was rediffusion but dident care, he said it was a terrible service!, i disagree it was good in its time, besides it was only basic.

At westwood in thanet, kent, they used to have a rediffusion building, i dont no whether it was knocked down or taken over by a bath shop or if it was the pierce signs building?

But there is a giant aerial there which hasent gone with all cables still under ground and attached! this is in the co-op supermarket car park although that was knocked down and is now tesco extra since 2003.

seems i was wrong about it only being in bristol.. but you'll be pleased to learn that the Rediffusion company is alive and well in singapore! http://www.rediffusion.com.sg/

if you check their history page, it mentions their english roots (in Clacton apparently). presumably this division somehow survived the demise of the parent company.

Sadly this is not the same company, although they did use the Rediffusion name under licence.

I used to work for the remnants of Rediffusion, the music arm that provided Muzak to shops and the like, just after it got bought by an American company...then the Rediffusion name went away a couple of years later.

Think that I am right in saying that Rediffusion also supplied instore music to many stores. They used to have offices on an industrial estate in Orpington, Kent. One of neighbour worked there until they closed a couple of years back

Correct. Cray Avenue in Orpington to be exact, and there we were up until a couple of years ago, right opposite the Allied Bakery. Now the old pink palace has been knocked down to make way for a Big Yellow Storage unit!

Now when griggs said about his neighbour working at rediffusion. (that building is still there and it still does the same purpose) but is under the name of AEI MUSIC as from 2003 they were then called DMX MUSIC so now they are called dmx. but havent seen for a while if the name has changed but i last saw it as aei but now i heard it dmx! ( this is in croydon, ophinton)

<snip)

And there is a also a coffee shop with ceiling loudspeakers
which have the rediffusion logo on them!!! ( so look and they are still around)

The building's gone now (see above). We moved out in January 2001 up to a place called Forest Lodge in Keston, near Biggin Hill.

Ahh....the old Starsound ceiling mount speakers. There's still hundreds of them around. All the new ones are obviously branded DMX these days, but you will also see ones branded AEI Music too.

According to the website, here was a Rediffuson place here in mansfield. It says it as on george Street. there is a George street near me, but clearly it's not the same one as there's nowhere on that street that could possibly have ever been a rediffusion Cente. Does anyone know where the Rediffusion place in Mansfield was, and if the bulding is still there (and if it is, is it still boarded up? I'm hugely interested in having a look)? I've got a rough idea where it is (and it seems the right sort of area for where that sort of palce would be) but I;m still slightly confused, even from looking at multimap.

Hi Josh....as far as I can remember they were 100v systems - although they did sell a lot of stuff that was not own branded as well, such as nightclub installations.

Where can you get starsoud speakers? LOL Why would you want them, they were awful! You might find some old ones around somewhere, like some being ripped out of old stores. You can also get PA speakers from RS Components - http://rswww.com

AEI replaced the starsound ones with far better sounding ones - I forget their make, but they were branded AEI, and more recently DMX.